Great Books for April

Need a good book? We’re a little behind in posting these titles, but here is what we received in April. I’m sure you can find something to tickle your fancy.

A “fast-paced and engrossing” (Publishers Weekly) sci-fi novel that asks the question: What would you do to survive?

When the black spheres filled the sky, anyone caught beneath them would vanish in a flash of blue-white light. Huddled indoors, the survivors were unaware if what was happening in their neighborhoods was happening worldwide.

Josh is trapped at home with his father, whose sanity is starting to erode from the endless confinement. Megs struggles to survive in a hotel parking garage where she sees human nature at its worst. For both of them, food, water, and time are running out.

And hovering patiently above them is an extraterrestrial enemy that has inexplicably declared war against humanity…

New York Times bestselling author Jack Cambell’s space saga hits lightspeed with an action-packed story of interstellar war.

Admiral John “Black Jack” Geary earned his rank after being revived from cryogenic sleep to lead the Alliance to victory against the Syndicate Worlds. But his superiors question his loyalty to the regime. Now in command of the First Fleet, Geary is tasked with exploring the frontier beyond Syndic space, a mission he fears deliberately puts the fleet–and himself–in harm’s way.

An encounter with the alien Enigmas confirms Gear’y fears. Attacked without warning, he orders the fleet to jump star systems–only to enter the crosshairs of another hostile alien armada. Ignoring all of the First Fleet’s attempts to communicate peaceful intentions, this system’s species send their ships into battle on suicde runs, while guarding the exiting jump point with a fortress of incalculable power.

Now, with a faction of his officers determined to eliminate this new threat despite the cost, Geary must figure out how to breech the enemy’s defenses so the fleet can reach the jump point without massive casualties–and knowing that the Enigmas are most likely waiting on the other side…

Possessing technology that allows him to travel across alternate worlds, John Rayburn begins building a transdimensional commercial empire, led by him, his closest friends, and their doppelgängers from several different parallel universes. But not every version of every person is the same, and their agendas do not always coincide.

Despite their benign intentions, the group’s activities draw unwanted attention from other dimensional travelers who covet their technology and will kill anyone to control it, a threat that culminates in a nuclear standoff for dominance throughout the multiverse.

Fifteen years of sunless gray. Fifteen years of mist. So thick the streets fade off into nothing. So thick the past is hazy at best. The line between right and wrong has long been blurred, especially for Thomas Vale.

Long gone are the days when new beginnings seemed possible—when he was a new recruit, off to a new start fresh in the army. He had hoped to never look back. Not like there was much to see, anyway.

First came the sickness, followed by the orders: herd the healthy into the city, shoot the infected. The gates closed and the bridges came down… followed by the mist. Fifteen miserable years of the darkest nights and angry, awful gray days. Thomas Vale can hardly fathom why he keeps waking up in the morning. For a few more days spent stumbling along? Another night drinking alone? Another hour keeping the shadows at bay….
But when Rebecca Ayers walks into his life, the answers come fast. Too fast.

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never been seen, only the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth, lives and dreams of love among the gaslit streets and cafés. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking.

As its cold words reach from space to the city walls—and as outlying towns and travelers’ ships start to mysteriously disappear—only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city’s most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the voice of the worldwasp—because an astonishing disaster threatens Virga.

This powerful sequel to the A.M. Dellamonica’s Sunburst Award–winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid—Vitagua—that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out—and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world.

Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.

Blue Magic is a powerful story of private lives changed by earthshaking events that will ensnare readers in its poignant tale of a world touched by magic and plagued by its consequences.

The climactic novel of the star-spanning Quadrail space opera

In Timothy Zahn’s Judgment at Proteus, the Quadrail that connects the twelve civilizations of our galaxy has been the flashpoint of a battle for dominance fought mostly unnoticed by humankind. But Frank Compton of Earth, aided by the enigmatic woman Bayta, has fought on the front lines, using every bit of his human ingenuity and secret agent skills to outwit the Modhri, a group intelligence that would control the minds of every sentient being it can touch.

Following a trail of deception and death to Proteus Station, Compton has discovered a conspiracy that threatens all life in the galaxy: the Shonkla’raa, an ancient enemy thought to be long dead, is rising again. So serious is the danger that the Modhri, the enemy of his enemy, may now be his friend, as the burgeoning threat of a race of invincible soldiers emerges.

If Compton and Bayta can’t stop them, the Shonkla’raa will decimate all who oppose them, destroying the Quadrail and billions of lives throughout the galaxy.

A value-priced omnibus of the first two novels of Daniel Abraham’s classic Long Price Quartet—groundbreaking, unique fantasy of rare power and originality

In this omnibus edition of A Shadow in Summer and A Betrayal in Winter, the aggressively expansionist Galt empire has already conquered lands across a huge continent. But the cities of the Khaiem resist Galt’s power with the andat—creatures of magic with godlike powers.

Each andat is brought into being by a “poet” who must say the right words and exert the iron will needed to control gods. The industrialized Galt war machine is helpless against the powers of the andat…but political intrigue and deep treachery combine to shift the balance of power in a world of ancient empires and immortal magics.

One man, Otah Machi, stands at the crossroads of history in these imaginary world fantasies, the fulcrum around which the wheels of epic history rotate through achingly poignant cycles of life and death, love and betrayal.

Shadow and Betrayal marks Daniel Abraham as one of today’s most brilliantly original young fantasy writers.

The latest volume of the prestigious anthology series
The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes, which have been published since 1966, collect the year’s Nebula Award-nominated and winning stories and poems, as voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. This year’s volume includes the winners of the Andre Norton, Dwarf Star, Rhysling, and Solstice Awards, as well as the Nebula winners, and features:

an excerpt from Blackout / All Clear by Connie Willis and an excerpt from the Andre Norton Award-winning I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett with additional stories and poems by Chris Barzak, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kendall Evans and Samantha Henderson, Howard Hendrix, Geoff Landis, Shweta Narayan, Ann K. Schwader, James Tiptree, Jr., and Adam Troy-Castro and a cover by Solstice Award-winner Michael Whelan.

THE NORTHERN WASTES…
A land of death and shadow where only the strongest survive. Yet that is where Caim must go to follow the mystery at the heart of his life. Armed only with his knives and his companions, he plunges into a world of eternal night where the sun is never seen and every hand is turned against him.

Caim has buried his father’s sword and found some measure of peace, but deep in the north an unfathomable power lies waiting. To succeed on this mission, Caim will have to do more than just survive. He must face the Shadow’s Master.

With this novel, Jon Sprunk brings his action-packed trilogy to an epic conclusion.

Welcome, intrepid temporal explorers, to the world’s first and only field manual/survival guide to time travel!
DON’T LEAVE THIS TIME PERIOD WITHOUT IT!

Humans from H. G. Wells to Albert Einstein to Bill & Ted have been fascinated by time travel-some say drawn to it like moths to a flame. But in order to travel safely and effectively, newbie travelers need to know the dos and don’ts. Think of this handy little book as the only thing standing between you and an unimaginably horrible death-or being trapped forever in another time or alternate reality. You get:

Essential time travel knowledge:

Choosing the right time machine, from DeLoreans to hot tubs to phone booths-and beyond

What to say-and what NOT to say-to your doppelganger

Understanding black holes and Stephen Hawking’s term “spaghettification” (no, it’s not a method of food preperation; yes, it is a horrifically painful way to meet your end)

The connection between Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, traversing wormholes and the 88 mph speed requirement

The possible consequences of creating a time paradox-including, but not limited to, the implosion of the universe

Survival tips for nearly any sticky time travel situation:

How to befriend a dinosaur and subsequently fight other dinosaurs with that dinosaur